Chris Maclean: Why I'm proud of pubs

Is a 40 per cent GP on £10,000 takings better than a 60 per cent GP on £5,000?

I ask this, not as an exercise in accounting, but as a genuine question about what we are doing.

Maybe it is because we are tightening our belts. Maybe it is because we wish to distance ourselves from other weaker, struggling businesses. But there seems to be a perceived wisdom that a pub is a business unit solely to generate money, that businesses fail because the "bottom line" wasn't met, that GP's were unsatisfactory and that licensees didn't see the small print. Rubbish.

I would like to draw line in the sand and declare that I am only in this business because I WANT TO RUN A PUB.

Simple as that.

I want to run a pub ~ and I'm good at it. I'm lucky.

I've no idea of my GP percentage. I cannot tell you how much a firkin of bitter is. I don't know, without looking, how much I took last week.

I doubt I am alone.

If truth be known I suspect a significant majority of licensees chose their pub not for the amount of money it could make them, but simply because it was a pub they liked, it was in a nice location, the people were nice and they felt they could offer something.

In short the pub they chose was to be their lifestyle.

It maddens me to listen to those who, seeing failing licensees, pompously declare they "should have read the small-print". Okay, they didn't. People see what they want to see. The heart often over-rules the head.

Chances are potential new licensees get to see the business side of thing but the domestic accommodation is a two minute viewing prior to signing contracts. By then it is too late. Typically this is the second pub I've taken where the accommodation was far from acceptable. But I was looking at what this pub could do. I was right, but the process wasn't rational.

There are far too many "suits" in our industry.

We are normal, vulnerable, impressionable people who see a pub as a chance to change our lifestyle and, if it is possible, hope there is an income sufficient to cover our costs.

I don't see anything wrong with that.

I am growing to despise the people who see "the business" of running a pub as over-riding the many aspects of running pubs that don't make money. Aspects that add quality of life to many who would, otherwise, suffer.

How would these "suits" view helping an old man live a life of independence? Or helping a new mum get the equipment she needs? Or helping an ill child get a life-changing opportunity? Thousands of pubs across the country deliver just that.

Pubs aren't cash generators.

Pubs aren't even simply businesses.

Pubs are a vital part of our communities.

We need to recognise this and recognise what is being achieved right now.

That is why I am proud of pubs. They deliver.